Former NY Assembly ethics official: Job was ‘waste of money’

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A former Colorado public ethics official hired by the New York state Assembly following a scandal involving its leader at the time says her Albany job was “a waste of money.”

Jane Feldman told the Times Union she “didn’t do anything” after being brought in to lead the Assembly Office of Ethics and Compliance, created after then-Speaker Sheldon Silver’s 2015 indictment on fraud and extortion charges.

Feldman resigned in June and returned to Colorado, where she had served as the first executive director of that state’s Independent Ethics Commission.

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie hired Feldman to help make reforms in the Democrat-controlled chamber. Her salary was $123,000.

Heastie’s spokesman says the Ethics and Compliance office provides training and expertise for lawmakers and staff and was never meant to craft policy.